Chapter 19 #2
Lao Tie, who fortunately didn’t look at all offended by Alex’s request, gave a thoughtful nod.
“Remarkable. Most remarkable! If this is the secret that allowed Mei Tung’s group such wild fortune in his last delve, then of course we should take such an oath!
Boon companions and brothers in battle should be just that.
Never should we have cause to fear the man or woman fighting by our side.
But tell me, should we join this… party, will we also be sharing thoughts and emotions? ”
Alex and Linnea solemnly shook their heads.
“Not if you don’t share our bloodlines,” they said as one before Alex gently took over speaking as Ya Ling squeezed Linnea’s hand and gave her a gentle headshake.
Alex was only momentarily perturbed before pulling the tiniest bit back from their shared communion, having only slammed into it so intensely on the off chance that they were going to be forced to engage in battle far quicker than he had hoped would be the case.
Yet seeing as all he sensed was curiosity and perhaps a certain hunger to claim any secret that would help them get ahead, he felt it was safe to ease their connection.
Lao Tie was the first to dip his head. “You have it. My Cultivator’s Oath.
I shall deliberately harm no companion who dares the delves with me this day, unless they deliberately attack me first.” He turned to catch the hard gazes of his friends, all of them immediately stiffening and swearing the exact same oath.
It was all Alex could do to suppress his smirk.
“I, too, give my oath that I shall deliberately harm no companion who dares the delves with me this day, unless they deliberately attack me first. And if I could have your oaths that the Ruidian secrets you glimpse on this delve will also stay between yourselves, you would have my gratitude.”
Lao Tie immediately nodded. “You have it.” He turned to his companions, who all nodded in turn.
Tang cracked a hard smile. “I’ve done more than one caravan run with Ruidian companions who are a damn sight more effective than a full squad of crossbowmen in the right circumstances, and I’ve always wondered how they coordinated so damned well with nothing more than mortal attributes.
So let me volunteer to be the first to experience your gift. ”
Lao Tie dipped his head. “As you will, friend Tang.”
Alex kept his face neutral, for all that half of him had no doubt that Tang spoke the truth, to the point that she halfway wondered if a step uncle or distant cousin had recounted tales of fighting beside a powerfully built caravan guard who looked very much like Tang from memories shared…
and the other half of him had no doubt that he was volunteering for his master’s sake, his flattery but pretext.
And that was fine with Alex, for more reason than one.
Yet despite the fact that he was facing a powerfully built Silver who had enjoyed more than one ascension along his path, no matter that he met the hardened eyes of a veteran prepared for death and betrayal from any angle—Tang possessing the gaze of both a loving father and a hardened killer all but expecting twisted betrayal—all it took was the slightest touch and the connection was made.
Crystalline neuromatrix detected!
Slave Node Tang073XY successfully accessed.
Do you wish to subjugate Slave Node Tang073XY?
You have chosen: NO.
Autonomy retained.
You have successfully formed a party with Tang073XY!
But Alex took long moments where he went so far as to close his eyes, clasping the other man’s forearm for three deep breaths and exhalations. Long enough to earn a soft snort from Kuaisu.
“Hardly something to be done in the middle of combat,” she noted.
“Which is why now is the perfect time,” Lao Tie replied with a smile.
And all the while Alex’s heart was pounding.
Filled both with dismay at just how effortless it had been to forge such a connection with a man who didn’t look like anything other than a typical desert native, more Khmer than Han, and still it was enough to dominate, should he force it, even if he couldn’t forge anything like the gestalt he shared with Linnea.
And that was something he was loathe to do.
He then peered intently into Tang’s awed gaze, desperately praying that the man hadn’t realized just how vulnerable he truly was. “Can you feel it?”
For long seconds the man just blinked and stared.
Alex’s heart skipped a beat. “He knows. He knows! We have to run. They’ll try to crucify us! No, we have to eliminate them first, before they can kill our—”
Alex ruthlessly quenched the tiny corner of his mind that was Linnea’s panicked thoughts, before turning to gently squeeze her hand with a lover’s tenderness. His smile sought to assure, because her panic could destroy them all.
Only then did Tang speak.
“Incredible. I sense them both, my lord. The girl is like a fiery wisp or a shaft of sunlight whose warmth I feel against my skin. Why… I sense them both just feet away, as if they were in the palm of my hand! And the boy?”
He gave Alex an approving clap on the shoulder. “I think he was actually holding back!”
Kuaisu furrowed her brow. “Wait! Tang, are you saying that when he took on Sun La, an actual Silver-tier wujen, darting about with a speed nearly the match of my own…”
Tang smirked, eyes twinkling. Then he seemed to catch himself, flashing Alex an apologetic smile.
“Who can say? Certainly it’s no business of ours, for all that it would only help our cause, the better we know our shared capabilities.
But I will say that I’m feeling better than ever about this delve. ”
Kuaisu snorted, before peering intently at Alex and boldly stepping forward. “All right, Ruidian. Let’s see just how strong your gift is.”
Alex didn’t hesitate to clasp her wrist and close her eyes for long moments before allowing their souls to connect, pulling back from the interface messages flittering across his mind’s eye so fast that it was over in an eyeblink, establishing only the lightest of communions with her.
Yet it was enough.
Her eyes widened with horror that made Alex’s heart skip a beat… before softening with wonder as she shuddered and stared about herself for long moments.
“Kuaisu?”
She gulped and stiffened like a soldier before a superior officer with Lao Tie’s deceptively gentle words.
“It’s… it’s all right.” She shook her head, awe written clear across her features.
“No. Better than all right! It’s… I can feel where they all are.
The Ruidians and my shieldbrother. I can sense them all.
Even the directions they’re facing!” Her eyes lit up with wonder.
“This… for the chaotic frenzy of close-quarters combat when enemies break through our lines… this is perfect!”
Wu Xien gave Alex a pointed look. “Can you really keep this up for our entire party through an entire delve, boy?”
Alex solemnly nodded. “Easy as breathing,” he assured.
Wu Xien snorted. “Well, then show me you aren’t talking out of your ass, boy.”
Alex didn’t hesitate to dip his head and clasp the man’s wrist before forming a connection that was, if anything, easier than any other he had forged today.
Wu Xien’s eyes widened. A visible sweat broke out across his brow.
Alex felt a sudden twist in his gut.
Had he overplayed his hand? Did Wu Xien truly understand what their binding meant?
“Wu?” Lao Tie’s smile didn’t waver, though his pointed gaze did lock with the powerfully built Silver’s for a moment before the giant at last broke out into a smile.
Without even turning his head, Wu’s massive armor-covered paw of a hand reached out to clasp Alex’s shoulder, and Alex let him with a smile, grateful that no one had thought to question why his wrist clasping had been necessary if his power effortlessly worked through armor.
“Kuaisu is four paces to my left and Tang is six paces to my right.”
Lao Tie’s eyes widened before he gave an approving chuckle. “He truly did grant you all a sense of the battlefield and our places within it. Remarkable. Most remarkable!” He caught Alex’s gaze and slowly dipped his head. “If you would be so kind, my Ruidian friend?”
Alex, sensing the sudden intensity of half a dozen gazes upon him, didn’t hesitate to nod and do just that.
And for all that Lao Tie spent long moments marveling at the expansion of his cultivation senses, as he put it, he alone truly had nothing to fear, having not a single drop of Ruidian blood in his veins.
“Remarkable. Most remarkable!” Lao gave an approving nod, and Alex could all but sense the young wujen’s mind racing a thousand miles a second as he caught every one of his companions’ gazes, all of them nodding together in perfect unison, clearly having strengthened whatever bonds they already shared.
“Thank you for your trust in us, Alex. And your timing was impeccable. Far better we spend a quarter glass adjusting to our minds expanding in unforeseen directions than be forced to deal with such a powerful epiphany while in the middle of combat. Now, assuming you are all properly acclimatized to one another? Let us proceed to the Winter gate and embrace a delve that will make this day one that will be scribed in the city’s annuls to be read and revered for centuries to come! ”
“This boy doesn’t think small, does he?” Ya Ling said with a bemused smile as they rapidly approached what looked to be a massive silver-rimmed oval mirror soaring to well over thirty feet in height.
Yet Alex couldn’t help but note the other gates nearby, the nearest one reflecting an autumnal riot of colors and in sharp contrast to Winter’s silver, were gilded in brilliantly shining bronze.
Alex gave the tiniest of nods. “And that’s okay. It never hurts to dream.”
“Especially when it’s just cover.”
Alex’s smile gave nothing away with the whisper-soft words from his friend.
“So am I mistaken or… did you not form a bond with Rachel?”